


Angel, Spike, & Buffy Meta

by womanaction



Series: Buffy Meta [6]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Meta, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 11:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womanaction/pseuds/womanaction
Summary: Two pieces of meta concerning the infamous love triangle originally posted to Tumblr 2013-2014.





	1. The Pain Is Gone: Innocence and Smashed

While making a crappy graphics edit the other day, I realized something. I was using the beginning of “Innocence” (2x14), where it’s first revealed clearly that Angel has reverted to his Angelus state (I refuse to consider them as two separate people - that’s a meta for another day). When the smoking prostitute asks if he’s okay, he says “The pain is gone.”

I was struck, suddenly, by a parallel to “Smashed” (6x9). When Spike hits Buffy and the chip doesn’t fire, he immediately goes to an alley to try to feed. After psyching himself up to it, he finds that he’s still unable to feed, and that’s when he realizes the difference lies in Buffy. He confronts her later, for their violent sexual encounter. When he is able to hit her, he says, “Oh, the pain! The pain…is gone.”

“Smashed”/“Wrecked” and “Surprise/Innocence” are bound to be compared in some ways. Both show Buffy’s “first times” with vampires. After Buffy sleeps with Angel, he becomes a monster. He makes derogatory comments to her, leaving her in tears (“Innocence”, 2x14) before she realizes that the man(pire) before her isn’t exactly the one she spent the night with. Spike, too, makes derogatory comments…after Buffy attempts to flee the scene. In this instance, Buffy is Angel(us), leaving after the sexual encounter, and Spike is the scorned Buffy. 

Prior to them sleeping together, Spike is already a monster, and Buffy’s lovin’ doesn’t magically make him a man. If anything, he becomes more needy, more controlling, and more demanding. Where before, their relationship had been healthy for the first time ever (or at least since “Becoming Part II”, 2x22), the pair enters into a cycle of abuse from “Smashed” on. Yet he is unable to fulfill the monster role as successfully as Angelus could. Buffy wants to guilt herself like she does in “I Only Have Eyes For You” (2x19), but while she does break down in “Dead Things” (6x13), she can’t entirely place Spike in the monster role. That is, in fact, what eventually drives them apart in “As You Were” (6x15) - she is unable to love him as he is. 

Angel’s pain really is gone, because without his soul, he feels absolutely no remorse. Yet even as a soulless demon, Spike has to force himself to feed and feels guilty for acting cruelly to Buffy. His pain _isn’t_ really gone - in his abusive relationship with Buffy, he merely finds a new outlet for it, like she does for her depression and anger re: being ripped out of heaven. Angel and Spike are both monsters, but Spike, in season 6, has become self-aware of that fact and therefore cannot be at rest or without pain. The physical pain of the chip is replaced by a moral/ethical dilemma that contradicts either his human nature or his demon nature.


	2. Angel/Angelus

The show(s) are really kind of contradictory with the way they treat Angel/Angelus. It’s understandable, because Angel(us) was the prototype “souled” non-human being, and the writers were probably unsure of how to handle it. That’s the Doylian explanation. From a Watsonian perspective, however, we have to consider why Angel seems to view his souled and ensouled incarnations as separate beings when Anya, Spike, and any others I may be forgetting clearly do not view them as such. This is especially noticeable in AtS S4, in which the souled Angel has to access Angelus in order to retrieve information. This makes no sense, even knowing what we do about the Angel/Angelus distinction. If Angel could not access all of Angelus’s memories, why would he feel guilt for his crimes? Moreover, if Angel and Angelus really are separate entities, the ensouling should not create any sense of guilt. In that case, Angel’s body would be the only common factor.

There is clearly no parallel loss of knowledge in Spike (who undergoes a similar process as Angel, albeit of his own will). Of course, in this case Angelus had been magically tampered with, but there are still other distinctions that don’t make sense. The show, again, is contradictory - if I recall correctly, it isn’t until late BtVS S3 that the Angel/Angelus name distinction is even introduced. It is known that Angel’s name was Angelus, but there isn’t a clear dichotomy between Angel the souled vampire and Angelus the soulless. Rather, those who knew Angelus (like the rest of the Whirlwind) pre-ensouling tend to refer to him by the old name, while newer acquaintances use Angel. However, as time goes on Angel seems to use this distinction to distance himself from his soulless self’s actions. This may be a coping mechanism - Angelus, after all, was history’s notorious vampire according to in-universe sources (although I’ve always thought that Darla, being older and by his side for all of the crimes, creating Angelus and also reigning past his ensoulment, should receive this title). That doesn’t mean there is any real distinction between the two.

Comparing Angel and Spike (which is the best way to get the fandom’s hackles raised, I think), we can clearly see the difference a soul makes. Spike had aid - the chip, being somewhat accepted into human society, falling in love with the Slayer - in becoming a more moral creature. Pre-ensoulment, he is completely willing to die for his love’s sake, among other seemingly selfless acts. However, he remains at heart “selfishly motivated” (5x14, “Crush”), because he is unwilling or unable to consider greater goods. He is able to care for others, including Drusilla, Dawn, and Buffy, but he is not able to truly prioritize them. He is capable of self-sacrifice inasmuch as it benefits his own self-image (which can include that of martyr), but he is not able to accept his relationship with Buffy as-is. Angel, on the other hand, is cruel and ruthless pre-ensoulment. Despite his clear affection for Darla, he is still able to use and abuse her, and he displays no real mercy or care for anybody else. This difference may be due to the characters of the human men they once were, but that does not change the fact that the introduction of a soul did not alter Spike’s being, and, therefore, it should not have altered Angel’s. The soul provides a sense of guilt and a greater moral compass, independent of others. It enables great sacrifices for the sake of the world, and for “big picture” morality. While Spike moves from loving individuals to being capable of making sacrifices for the world’s well-being, Angel seems to do the opposite. He is incapable of caring for others until a sense of overall morality has been imposed on him, and he still finds it difficult to connect through AtS S1. Yet that mission enables him to find value in others and to care for them on an individual level.

However, even souled Angel has made very questionable choices - sleeping with Darla, taking over Wolfram & Hart, his method of infiltrating the Circle of the Black Thorn, etc. He uses people the same way, whether he is souled or ensouled, and he tends to be committed to large goals either way. Angelus will not settle for simple feeding - he must destroy the world. Similarly, a normal life will not do for Angel - he needs to save the world. Angel suppresses his Angelus instincts through the help of his soul, but the demonic aspect is still there, and, especially, so is Liam (who did not appear to be overly moral based on flashbacks). The Angel we meet is a strange amalgamation of human Liam, the demon that became Angelus, and the new, imposed morality that he uses to make sense of it all. He isn’t and can’t be a new person - that would entirely destroy the point of the soul. Still, if it helps him to conceptualize himself as such - whatever.


End file.
